SanDisk built its name producing flash drives, and now the company is releasing its first dedicated USB Type C option.

This USB 3.1 stick comes in storage sizes up to 128GB and offers read speeds of 150MB/s. Write speeds are unspecified.

The SanDisk Ultra USB Type C drive is already up on Amazon in increments of 16GB (12.99), 32GB ($17.99), 64GB ($27.99), and 128GB ($49.99). Though as I write this, it shows up as temporarily out of stock in all four sizes.

“We expect to see many new USB Type-C supported devices released in 2016,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. “As more consumers purchase ultra-mobile PCs, smartphones and tablets that feature this new, more advanced USB standard, it is critical to offer a complete ecosystem of compatible products. New offerings, like our SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive, will give consumers the capabilities they’ve come to expect from traditional Type A ports, but with the added benefit of better performance.”

The new SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive is available in up to 128GB* and delivers USB 3.1 performance of up to 150MB/s2, making it SanDisk’s fastest and highest capacity USB Type-C offering. The USB drive features a slim, retractable design to protect the reversible connector and is compatible with the SanDisk Memory Zone app for Android™. The app, which is available for free through the Google Play™ Store, auto-launches upon insertion of the drive into a compatible device, allowing immediate access to the user’s content and easy file management3.

“USB Type-C connectors could be a game-changer, as they offer significant benefits to consumers, such as a slim design and reversible plug orientation,” said IDC research VP Shane Rau. “We’ve already seen a considerable increase over the past year when the connector began showing up on new products from major devices manufacturers. As demand increases, we expect more and more solutions to hit the market, such as the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive.”

The SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive is the company’s first dedicated USB for Type-C ready devices. The new drive complements the company’s suite of USB Type-C flash memory solutions which range from dual USB drives to portable SSDs.

Pricing and Availability

The SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive features a five-year warranty4, and is now available worldwide at Amazon, and other leading retailers. The new offering comes in capacities of 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB with U.S. MSRPs of $19.99, $29.99, $49.99 and $79.99, respectively.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For more than 27 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk’s quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world's largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smartphones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide. For the latest SanDisk news visit www.sandisk.com, or find us on our social channels:

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements about the anticipated growth of USB Type-C supported devices in 2016 that are based on current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others the market for USB Type-C supported devices may not evolve or grow as expected, our product offerings may not be available when we expect or gain customer acceptance in the timeline we expect, and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in SanDisk’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 3, 2016. All statements made in this news release are made only as of the date of this release. This news release contains information from third parties, which reflect their projections as of the date of issuance. SanDisk undertakes no obligations to update the information in this release in the event facts or circumstances change after the date of this release.

SanDisk and SanDisk Ultra are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. USB Type-C™ is a trademark of USB Implementers Forum. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Comments

It's USB A (full), microUSB, and USB-C, and takes both a microSD card and SD card. Plus it's USB 3.0.

Carlos Rodríguez

I have the Kingston Micro Duo 3C and I love it!

Plays really nice with my Nexus 5X.

The write speeds are low but the read speeds are great. It's also cheaper than the sandisk.

Side note: for people wanting to use it on android without worring about things, you'll need to format it on FAT32.

Another file system won't be detected by the nexus unless you use some kind of app. I bought a plugin for Solid Explorer and reads/writes to exFAT and reads only NTFS.

Cheers!

Colin Richardson

Thank you, this is exactly what I wanted to know, and you even answered my next question which would have been ntfs vs fat32.

Shame about readonly for ntfs. C'est la vie.

Carlos Rodríguez

You're welcome.

The problem with FAT32 is the 4GB+ files. If you have a big movie, you can't copy it.

exFAT doesn't have that limitation but you'll need another browser. I use Solid Explorer with its OTG plugin.

someone755

What about ext4? Isn't the phone's own storage in that same format?

Christopher Bement

Is there a possibility that Type C USB sticks could support pass-through charging? For example, say I have a USB stick that has a library of audiobooks on it that I want to listen to only in the car. Could a stick be made that had a female port (giggity) on the other end that a charger could plug into to supply both power and storage expansion simultaneously?

I have a Kingston dual USB A 3.0 - micro USB flash drive and if I connect it to the PC and phone simultaneously it charges the phone. (Although I don't do that because I don't know if it's safe.)

Kenneth Porter

This is dope, considering new PC motherboards are being built with type C ports. One port that works on all my devices

Henrik

and usb didnt?

Kenneth Porter

You can't plug a usb type A port into a phone. You can't plug type A into most smaller or mobile devices. Type C is allowing us to plug into devices large and small with the fuss of adapters and cables
*without

Floss

Two different USB standards basically covered everything: A and Micro A. C will be nice because it is supposed to convert everything to use just one standard (eventually of course).

Beautiful. Can't wait for all usb ports in the world to magically transform into usb 3 type C ports

WORPspeed

hopefully the cables transform magically as well

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Nice! At least now I know they exist.
Now... I have to wait until they are sold in my country. Or until I have another chance to escape from it for some time.

Lawrence

It will fry my Laptop.

pol

...if it's made by a crappy company that doesn't comply with regulations, yes.

aRvInD

Great start and lead Sandisk! Its now time to start USB-C flash drives race...

TechGuy22

kinda cheap for 50 bucks but i'll wait

andy_o

AFAIK there is no "legal" way to adapt this to USB-A since USB-C receptacle-to-USB legacy adapters are prohibited by the USB spec, so you gotta be 100% sure that you'll only wanna use this on USB-C devices.

BTW, extremely fishy that write speeds aren't specified. Going by pretty much all other marketing that does this, write speeds probably about 20MB/s or less wouldn't be surprising.

RadarJammer

The Ultra devices from Sandisk have average writings speeds with high read speeds. The Extremes are those with high writing speeds.